National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1887-06-13
Our Flag on the Ocean.

Under the above headline the Washing
ton Post says:
Our neither neighbor, the REPUBLICAN,, voices
the current wrath and fashionable mortihca.
tion on account of the paucity of our mercan
tile mprinc. 1t calls attention to the fact that
so per cent. of all our imports and exports
are carried on ships of other nations, and
declares:
American goods carried abroad should be
carried in American ships and will be as soon
as there is Congress composed of men COM
petent to attend to the affairs of the nation,
for they will restore the American flag to the
ocean.
It's little odd that the REPUBLICAN does
not pause to inquire whether this foreign trade
is profitable.
The fact is that we are far better off without
the oceanic carrying trade than we should be
with II. There is no sense in the wall over the
decline of our foreign commerce. 1t is sort
of business we cannot afford to engage in.
The Post then asserts, with all the en-
phasis Of italics, that "American ships
owned In New York and Philadelphia
which carry cargoes across the sea do not
earn two per cent. on the investment"
and that money pays much better in any
other trade.
The Post explains the failure Of An sri-
can shipping to pay on the investment as the
result OF cheap labor in foreign countries,
and says:
Money pays better ia almost any other trade.
We pay our sailors sl5 or so a month, while
the Italian or Dutch shipper pays MT more
than half as much. We pay Our captains
$1,000 year, against the $500 that the Norwe-
gian captain gets, and we feed our crews well.
So we cannot compete. We should not try
to compete. We should be glad to let the
Dutch and English Scaudauayians and Ital-
ians serve us as porters.
The closing words OF the Post are:
1t is puerile and fatuous for US to enter
into scramble of salt-sea rivalry
with the stevedores OF Copenhagen
and the lazzaroni of Italy. The frenzy
for subsidlzing and owning ships results from
the same foolishness that dictates high tariff
taxing one class of our people for the alleged
benefit Of another class.
For rich and prosperous nation, whose
money is worth from to per cent, a mar
chant marine Is burden and expense in times
peril in time OF war.
The article is remarkable one, because
1t avows itself in favor Of free trade by
speaking of "tbe same foolishness that
dictates high tariff-taxing one class Of
our people for the alleged benefit Of an
other class,n and yet shows as conclusiyely
as any paper favoring high tariff could
do, that protection not only enhances The
price of labor, but also increases the proft
Of capital.
II the cheap labor and cheap capital Of
Europe should be permitted to do our car
rying trade, the same reason would maxi
them the proper media for doing our farm
ing, mining, manufacturing and all othe
classes OF our business, unless our labU
and capital was made as cheap as that o
Europe by being forced into competition
with 1t.
Protection prevents this, and the Post op
poses protection while 1t admits the facts.
But the reasons(S) which the Post give
for our inability to compete with foreigr
carriers for our own and the carrying trad,
of the world are ''puerile," and the ignor
ance II displays might justly be termed
''fatuous.n
The very countries whose "cheap labor
and cheap capital enable them to driv
American shipping from the ocean do pro
tect the capital employed ia the carrying
trade. They do more than protect it, Me
suJsidigo il, and the Post ought to be awar
of that fact-perhaps 1t is not.
1t is not merely, however, the profits o
the carrying trade that flow from an exten
sive merchant marine The salth o
England, France, and Germany arises frou
the opportunity their fleets of merchantme
give the merchants and manufacturers /
secure markets for their goods. Thes
countries send their wares to every marke
at low rates of freight, because they hay
lines OF steamers subsidized by their gove,n
nents, so that the investments In the ship
may be made profitable. Thus all that the
produce from the farm, the mine, or tb
workshop Ia enabled TO find purchaser II
some port Of the world, while the Ameri
can, having no ships, must depend upon
home market, or upon one Where his pr0duC
lions are 80 badly needed that they are sen
for.
The closing sentence Of the Post is on